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Constantly in pursuit of historical subjects, Jean-Paul Laurens can rightly be considered as one of the principal French painters practising the "Grand genre" at the end of the century. He was one of its last representatives when it went into decline as its pre eminence was being contested.
Throughout Laurens' work, history runs in a vein of heroism and anecdotes, derived from a multitude of historical moments and portrayed in a profusion of varying motifs. Drawn from sources from antiquity or biblical texts, the classical themes preoccupying Laurens in his first works were replaced by other areas of exploration - the western Middle Ages, the history of southern France, the Byzantine world and the exotic East. He sought inspiration in memoirs, the history of the popes and the lives of the saints and chronicles updated by contemporary historians. He adopted favourite subjects, which were transformed into veritable iconographic cycles . His work is a volleying between the canonical forms of the old genre and his very personal interpretation, expressed in his choice of scenes and episodes (often new) and in his technique. But within the originality of his vision and through his renderings of the past, Laurens also bears witness to a general revival of a taste for the past, present throughout the 19th Century " the century of history ". At a time when history was becoming a discipline in its own right and being re-evaluated, the canvases of Laurens echoed certain important works of the 19th century historians highlighting some of the subjects that were preoccupying them at the time. This is particularly clear in the subjects concerning French history. This proximity gives us a good idea of what was transpiring in the school - or schools of history, and therefore the prevailing influences for an academic painter.
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